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Gov. Patrick signs bill divesting from Sudan
by Rachel Marder
Senior Editor
News | 11/6/07
Posted online at 3:47 AM EST on 11/6/07
/ Last updated at 7:42 PM EST on 11/6/07
Brandeis' anti-genocide activists had reason to celebrate last Friday when Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill making the commonwealth of Massachusetts the 21st in the Union to divest funds from companies that do business with the Sudanese government, which is reportedly carrying out genocide against people in its Darfur region.
With the bill's passage, the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board within a year will sell about $54 million worth of stock in eight companies, including PetroChina, which is collaborating with the Sudanese government to increase oil production.
Daniel Millenson '09, the national advocacy director for the Sudan Divestment Task Force, heads lobbying efforts across North America to get governments and universities to divest funds as a means of putting economic pressure on the Sudanese government. He also is one of three co-founders of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which formed in April 2005.
Massachusetts is 14th in the Union to employ the Task Force's "targeted model," Millenson said, which divests funds from "the highest offending companies" identified by the Task Force. The first three states to divest, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon, passed legislation for total divestment.
"[Massachusetts is] a very difficult state," he said. "Not a lot of bills get passed here. It's not been this difficult in any other state."
Millenson said he's working on campaigns in other states as well.
Under Massachusetts law, the governor has 10 days to sign the bill, which Millenson said passed a week and a half ago but was nearly killed several times last summer.
Millenson attributed the recent success to diligent lobbying and awareness efforts by Brandeis' chapter of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, as well as other Massachussets schools and community groups.
Rep. Jay Kaufman '73, D, is one of the co-sponsors of the bill, Millenson said.
The United Nations estimates that around 450,000 people have died since the conflict began in 2003.
With the bill's passage, the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board within a year will sell about $54 million worth of stock in eight companies, including PetroChina, which is collaborating with the Sudanese government to increase oil production.
Daniel Millenson '09, the national advocacy director for the Sudan Divestment Task Force, heads lobbying efforts across North America to get governments and universities to divest funds as a means of putting economic pressure on the Sudanese government. He also is one of three co-founders of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, which formed in April 2005.
Massachusetts is 14th in the Union to employ the Task Force's "targeted model," Millenson said, which divests funds from "the highest offending companies" identified by the Task Force. The first three states to divest, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon, passed legislation for total divestment.
"[Massachusetts is] a very difficult state," he said. "Not a lot of bills get passed here. It's not been this difficult in any other state."
Millenson said he's working on campaigns in other states as well.
Under Massachusetts law, the governor has 10 days to sign the bill, which Millenson said passed a week and a half ago but was nearly killed several times last summer.
Millenson attributed the recent success to diligent lobbying and awareness efforts by Brandeis' chapter of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, as well as other Massachussets schools and community groups.
Rep. Jay Kaufman '73, D, is one of the co-sponsors of the bill, Millenson said.
The United Nations estimates that around 450,000 people have died since the conflict began in 2003.
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